March 2, 2009

Yesterday Dino did his oldest track at 42 hours. I was totally thrilled, and he was 95% dead on the track. We are still working on corners and teaching him to indicate to me what direction the track goes at each corner. Donna has taught me to anchor him at a corner and have him check which direction. I give him a few seconds at each corner to determine which direction. Then he can either do in that direction or I have been teaching him to stand, bark and face in the direction of the scent. We then go in that direction.

I have also noticed that he will go down the street in the direction of the scent, but sometimes he is on the other side of where we walked. This is fine because after that amount of time the scent can easily be on that side also. I have been trying to show him that sometimes the scent can be stronger in some areas than others. I am trying to show him that means that is the actual spot the animal walked rather than where the scent just blew to.

If he wants to go in a direction, whether it is the right direction, I let him check it out so he can follow through with what he might be smelling and learn that. I think he seems to noticing that the scent can be in a variety of forms, especially as the scent gets older and older.

I know that at the age of 42 hours, the scent can be all over the street and be in different forms. I want to teach Dino how this looks to him and how to determine the direction of the animal with all this going on.

I set another track last night in another neighborhood with a lot of corners and high vehicle and foot traffic.